LOTS OF HOW TO CHOPPER PROJECT REPORTS... We build choppers the old school way... craftsmanship and artistry. Photos of our work to give you ideas... Aftermarket parts, parts for Shovels, CB's and XS's, our own unique parts for sale...

Thought I'd give you a run down on setting up Jason's seat. There are a couple of important considerations with sprung solo seats. We'll covert hem here for those of you setting up your own seats.

Firstly, and it can't be emphasised enough... a seat that does not wobble sideways is crucial to comfortable riding particularly cornering. What keeps the seat straight? The front mount... not the rear springs. So it is important to have a front pivot that is sufficiently wide to control the inevitable play in the bushings and pivot shaft. Secondly the shaft or bolt needs to be as firm a fit as possible. Thirdly, it needs to have wide bearing surfaces to reduce the considerable wear you will get if you are a serious rider.

I did my best to convince Jason to make his own front pivot so it could be all of the above. No luck, but he did buy a reasonable quality on off the net that may last a few thousand k's if he is very lucky. It is wide, but does not have proper bearing surfaces. He did at least allow me to replace the bolt to a larger size and tighter fit.

Because this bike is going through motor reg check via my engineer, we have to make sure the seat/handle bar height will pass muster. Just makes it.

Note that seat is set up with the rear a bit higher than the front. I personally hate most after market sprung saddles! They are expensive, too small to be comfortable on any thing but a narrow bum on a short ride and usually flat with nothing to stop the rider sliding off. Most guys putting on one of these seats forget that when their weight is on it the seat sags at the back. Add compression under a bump in the road... you get the idea!!! The rider has to hang onto the bars to keep him on the chopper, definitely a second best set up. You often saw traditional choppers in the US with a pillion pad mounted on the front of the rear guard so the rider would slide up against that and not the hard guard.

Fortunately Jason chose a seat at my encouragement with a bit of rearwards support...

Front mount being set up with centre line and set square...

Bottom spring mounts will be welded to frame cross piece. Spring is a firm fit over the mount. My longest springs are fortunately just the right length to give a slight forwards tilt to the seat.

Top spring mounts.

Another consideration when setting up your solo seat is access to battery, fuses and electrical components if they are only accessible from on top. If access is time consuming or difficult, regular maintenance will suffer and new invocations invented on that ride with a bunch of guys standing impatiently around you wrestle with spanners and near impossible finger twisting to get to that damned fuse under the saddle!!!

Seat needs to lift easily or you will at some time curse it. This seat is set up to lift up from the rear with out any tools. A pair of locaters for the top of the springs are machined up. They will hold the seat by friction, so the springs have to just have a slight twist to release.

Another annoying thing about a lot of the aftermarket saddles is how inconsiderately (cheaply) they are made. The spring mounting bolts on this one points and an impossible angle for any regular guy with few tools. We drill these at an angle so they line up properly with the springs...

Springs will be located and secured on the bottom mounts with a retaining washer. Arrow shows where it fouls the angle of the spring...

Solution is some judicious grinding. Retainer shown up side down...

Springs located and retained. Stainless dome nut finishes the job...

Finished. Slight angle of top retianers hold spring ins place. A twist by hand of each spring allows the seat to be raised for access to fuses and oil filler...

Tim to start preparing for paint. I am a big fan of moulding. Provides more surface area for paint and makes areas around brackets and forgings easy to clean... no place for crud to build up either.

Front engine are a prime messy spot. These are going to be faired in with 2mm sheet metal and then moulded...

A bolt is screwed in to ensure the metal does not get in its way on assembly...

Only pic I have of the metal work around the front engine mounts. Welding is very l light across the down tube to minimise a stress point...

Three blokes hard at it... Rayne working on his sissy bar on the left and Stu on the right, Jason in the middle...

The frame stand is magic for this kind of work especially moulding. It adjusts in three dimensions courtesy of a Ford front rotor assembly and and some other found bits...

Setting up chain guard mount...

Exhaust mount (red arrow) is faired in as is chain guard bracket (blue arrow). Bottom guard mount (green arrow) also had to be modified...

King Sporty tank outlet fouled the rear rocker cover, so we machined a standard HD fuel tap nut so we could run an inline tap...

Machined up a brass plug (to be silver soldered) that is threaded to take a standard brass elbow...

Here's what it looks like on the finished bike...

Bottom triple trees would not clamp up on the fork tubes. Holes were not deep enough so we had to drill and retap to provide sufficient thread to resist stripping...

After market frames come with an MSO... Manufacturer's Statement of Origin that matches the frame number. Frame number has to be cut off because Regency have given Jason a new frame number as it will be an ICV... Individually Constructed Vehicle...

A good shot of finished areas around engine mount... easy to clean, no place for crud to hide...

On two wheels and looking good. Note blanket under frame so we didn't damage it...

Setting up handlebars. Multiple thicknesses of cloth to prevent damage to frame paintwork. Whenever I do any work above the tank, I ALWAYS cover it. You 'll be surprised how easily a screw, or tool can be dropped...

Engine installation was a three person job. Frame tubes wrapped in cloth for protection

Reinstalling pipes...

ICV so we need indicators. These are the front ones, nice spacers made by Jason on the lathe. A hole was drilled in the side of the indicator for the wire to exit. All fasteners are stainless. They must always be greased to prevent the threads welding themselves together under pressure...

Started up and first ride...

Nice side shot...

Jett got out Paul's shovel and chased Jason up the road...

In a mate's trailer and heading home for some final touches and engineer inspection. A very excited owner...

When we got the chopper running we were unable to do a noise test on the pipes as another customer was borrowing my decibel metre.

When the engineer did his inspection at Jason's place the pipes Jason has specially bought were much too loud. So next step was to try a set of standard 80's shovel mufflers I have in the shop.

Requirement is 96 decibels at 1/2 max power revs. Max power on this motor is developed at 5400rpm = 2700rpm. We have a temporary tacho set up, but the motor is very hard to hold at the required revs... and is quite rattly at these revs...

No luck still 104 decibels and as an ICV has to be 96db. Next try is a set of recent model Victory mufflers which bring it down to 101db...

I spend a couple of hours researching exhausts and exhaust noise. Seems a crossover pipe brings down the noise level noticeably. Try that and bring it down another decibel. Still a couple to go... so wrap some half inch chicken wire into sausages and push a ten inch piece up each header pipe and a six inch piece into each muffler. 97db!

Part of the rattling of the motor appears to be around the front pulely. I pull the outer primary cover off and sure enough the nut is loose, but even when tightened up the washer is not pulled up tight. A lathe job here...

With that sorted still have to come down a bit more. Engineer advises that a lot of the noise will be coming from the intake. Jason sends up his large air cleaner, as the engineer will be here in two days. Success... 94 db.

Engineer comes up and we do a brake test followed by the noise test. He gets the same reading and we are home and hosed!. I'm sure a lot of noise is coming from the rattly motor and wear baggy pants and my leather jacket in the hope of muffling a bit of it!...

Bike as it will go to Regency, though still to get the pipes repainted and make a muffler mounting bracket...

A bit of research on forums about the Rev Tech suggests they often come adrift at the bottom end early in their life. Others are highly reliable, so maybe a case of less than perfect quality control. Earliest motors are the worst. Apparently some of the Ultima motors suffer similar problems. Think I'll only ever consider a S&S if I get a non HD motor.

A good point made by a US shop that deals with all these models is that the big inch motors are basically a race motor and not expected to have a long life, plus guys buy them to thrash... so a second hand big inch non HD motor is probably not a good idea.

Anyway, paper work is in to Motor Reg. Just waiting on Regency to give Jason an appointment time.

Once registered, Jason plans to rebuild the motor and add a springer and 'decent' sissy bar and then ride the thing. So he should, he's been waiting for this day for 5 years!